Chronicles of the Broken Key
by Anthrax Pretzels
Summary: Perfection isn't always bliss. Various snippets on the misadventures of a Mary Sue. New Sushineko is planning something else, in store for Riku...
1. Sushineko Jones

"Chronicles of the Wing-Jewel-Key-to-All-Souls"

In the abyss of a cold lab, in the deepest basement of The World that Never Was, something was sleeping, suspended in a column luminous green fluid, with tubes connected to a glowing computer screen. A puzzled Vexen glanced at his creation briefly between furious scribbling at a clipboard. The door of the lab opened, as Number Six of the Organization, Zexion entered, pausing to check the screen and the figure.

"Is this a new Dusk, or an experiment of a different sort?" Zexion examined the strange figure, with a semi-human appearance. But the Cloaked Schemer knew better.

"The Dusks found it outside the Castle, waving a Keyblade like a lunatic. " Vexen didn't look up from his notes. "Unfortunately it took around thirty to apprehend it, but I'm running several tests. This…thing emanates dark and light energy. Does it have a distinct scent?" He asked with a sneer.

"You're kidding…" Zexion said simply. "Not another one of _those_…"

Suddenly the glass cracked as the figure opened her sapphire-blue eyes. Liquid oozed out, and then the column gave away completely. A beam of pure light shot out as the figure flew away on three pure white wings, leaving a trail of bright pink light and crashing through the basement's ceiling. Both Nobodies were speechless. After a few moments, Vexen spoke.

"I'll get the Dusks started on repairing the ceiling." Turning, Vexen strode out of the lab, leaving a puzzled Zexion to examine the meter-thick glass that the girl had broken through like cardboard.

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"Now remember, we're just stopping at Hollow Bastion for a few supplies and gummi blocks for the ship." Donald explained. "We've got to get going tomorrow, so don't waste any time."

"Me an' Goofy can get potions and the blocks! I think Merlin mentioned wanting to see you last time we were here!" Sora smiled, as the friends set off in different directions. Quickly the Keyblade Wielder bought the potions they needed, when suddenly something landed in front of him with a trail of pink light.

_It is here that a certain typing pretzel would like to notify the reader that this description is all too familiar. Any reader that wishes to do so may replace the following description with road kill dressed in a ball gown doing the hula, as the description isn't ever really that important._

The first peculiar thing that Sora had noticed about this girl sitting on the corner was her stunning purple hair. It was streaked with red, and was flowing, blown by the breeze. Strange, though. Hollow Bastion wasn't particularly windy that day, argued Sora's common sense. Her hair was set neatly in place by a gold tiara with a sapphire in the center, that matched her eyes, endless pools of aquaness, leaking tears that bore the appearance of purest lapis lazuli, and her eyes could change colors , red when angry, green when jealous, and yellow when constipated.. She was dressed in a deep purple Chinese shirt of finest silk , and wore an amethyst pendant that looked like a heart with a silver dragon curled around it and a bell attached to a leather collar. She had a dark black skirt with a silver dragon embroidered on it that was flying to the moon and having a tea ceremony. She wore black boots that fit tightly, and decorated with chains. Attached to her back were wings, pure white as snow and like an angel's wings, feathery and soft and 2-ply. Also attached to her head were two orange ears, soft and pointy like a cat's. She also had a cat's tail the color of tangerines, providing balance and poise. Strapped to her designer belt was a samurai sword, made of polished steel and with a star ruby on the pommel. In her hand was a Keyblade, hot pink loaded with pink hearts made of precious stones with wings on the hilt to match her own, the keychain splitting off to a replica of her necklace and the paopu fruit, matching the chain on Sora's Oathkeeper.

Sora, who was standing about ten feet away, couldn't see the girl very well, but walked a bit closer to see what she was crying about. Sadly he had no idea that his downfall was imminent. He spoke the clichéd and doomed words, the last words of his own free will.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

She turned, eyes pouring out tears that were caught promptly by aspiring jewelers as they fell to the ground. "Well, sir. I don't really know. I was just sitting by the side of the street, reminiscing about my childhood-that-never-was, when…I got captured by these mean mean people in black coats…" She burst into tears again.

Sora's base instincts started to pull him away metaphorically, screaming at him to get away. But the Keyblade Master's kind heart couldn't let the poor innocent girl suffer, and besides... She did look very attractive, and it wasn't like he had ever had a crush on anyone that wasn't hinted at continuously. Elsewhere on Destiny Islands, Kairi felt a sense of immense impending doom, but ignored it.

"Aw, it can't be that bad. What's your name?" He sat down next to her with a look of sympathy.

"Well, "she began, placing her Keyblade on the sidewalk, "My name is Sushineko Hikari Potter Annabelle Jones, and I've been lost from my world. At the age of one month my parents both lost their lives in a tragic golf-cart accident. Since then I crawled, then walked the streets of Twilight Town, lost and cold, sleeping without even a mint under my pillow. Children at school hated me because I had no parents, and didn't let me sit with them at lunch." She sniffled, more tears dropping from her eyes as one jeweler punched another in the eye to get the particularly large sapphire. "At age seven the Keyblade called to me as I was begging outside the clock tower, telling me that I was destined to find the Keyblade Master. Since then I have been traveling the Worlds on my wings, but I ended up being captured by the notorious Organization XIII and forced into their laboratory, where who knows what was going to be done to me. But I escaped their horrible lab, and finally found you here in Hollow Bastion." She ran her fingers through her long purple-and-red hair.

After hearing this, the normally-strong heart of the Keyblade master melted into a metaphorical puddle of goop, causing his brain and Nobody to complain very loudly. Sadly, Sora ignored this, stood up, and took Sushineko's hands. "You're in good hands now, Sushineko. I promise that I'll protect you with my life, swearing on my good luck charm." He held up Kairi's charm to her. Her tears slowed, and then became a sniffle. "Thank you, Sora." Sushineko stood. "You don't know how much that means to me…SO YOU GET A BIG KAWAII HUG!" Sushineko's eyes turned to yellow, the color of meringue pie as she Super-Tackle-Cling-Glomped Sora, making the charm fly out of his hand, and it shattered on the ground.

"Oh well." Sora shrugs. "I never really liked that thing anyways."

Three worlds away, Kairi suddenly angrily stabbed through a brick wall with a pencil. "Whoa…" Selphie exclaimed, glancing over her homework.

"That's weird. Wonder why I did that?" Kairi shrugged, pulling the pencil from the brick and continuing to work.

Meanwhile, Sora began to acquaint the lovely Sushineko Jones with his friends.

"It's very nice to meet you," Goofy shook her hand with his usual big smile. "Any friend of Sora's is a friend of ours!" The magician, however, wasn't as trusting as the knight, and stood much farther away from her, scowling. However, Donald's suspicions didn't have time to be tested, as a cluster of Heartless appeared near the cliff that they all conveniently stood near.

"Oh, I can totally handle this!" Sushineko perked, and took out her samurai sword and Keyblade, the Wing-Jewel-Key-to-All-Souls, in a mighty flourish. Unfortunately, the force knocked the Heartless, and coincidentally Donald and Goofy, off the cliff, resonating in a small 'Splat' on the rocks below.

"I am, like, SOOOOO SORRY." The girl frowned, peering over the cliff. In pink sparks, Donald's wand and Goofy's Shield floated out of the ravine, and into her empty hands. The Wing-Jewel-Key-to-All-Souls strapped itself onto her back. "Weird, your friend's weapons are letting me take over, cool!" Sushineko grinned. "I guess I'm sticking with you from now on!" She took the wand and shield, both turning pink and white in her hands.

"Hooray!" Cheered Sora as the two left for the Gummi ship.

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"And if that girl is controlling Sora," Vexen explained, "then the Organization's plans will completely go to waste, won't they?" Marluxia nodded. "Surely there's something that we can do to 'intervene?' If Sora's mind and heart is rotted from that girl's effects, then he's of no use to us." The Chilly Academic finished.

"Larxene," Marluxia turned to the Savage Nymph, idly twirling a knife between her fingers. "You and I will have to meet this…thing and have a little 'chat' with her on getting in the ways of the plans of the Organization."

With that, numbers twelve and eleven teleported out of the room, leaving Vexen laughing evilly, Axel trying to steal muffins from the break room next door, and Demyx running in complaining that someone had replaced his sitar with a banjo.

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	2. Showdown!

_So many hearts were ascending, to join Kingdom Hearts. She stood motionless; eyes blank as the Heartless were set upon her._

"_No! I have to protect my friends!" Her body froze, unable to attack, and then…_

Sushineko woke, drenched in cold sweat from her nightmare, in Hollow Bastion. For years the dream plagued her, as she looked at the dragon pendant, once belonging to her mother whose heart was devoured by Heartless with a side of cheese puffs. "I'll never forgive you, you fiends…" She muttered.

"What's that?" Sora murmured sleepily, walking in from his room next door. " Did you have a bad dream, Sushineko?" He placed his hand on her forehead. Sushineko immediately turned as red as a tomato drunk on ketchup while using red fingerpaint.

"I'm feeling better now." She grinned. "You're my best friend, Sora."

"I know," Sora smiled. "You're my best friend too, Sushineko."

This time it was not Kairi, but Riku that felt an immense homicidal tendency.

"Hmm…" He mused, having tea with DiZ at the moment. " It's like someone just replaced me in Sora's memories and heart, and Naminé had nothing to do with it this time…"

"That's just crazy." DiZ sipped his tea. "Pass the sugar?"

"Get your own darn sugar." Riku blew a raspberry.

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Meanwhile, in the Gummispace…

"Wahoo! Road trip!" cheered Demyx, bouncing in the driver's seat of his bright yellow Gummi ship, _The Submarine_.

"Ugh! That's about the fifteenth time you've said that in the last minute" screeched Marluxia from farther back in the Gummi ship.

"Nuh-uh!" Demyx turned around from the seat briefly to wiggle his index finger. "No back seat driving…"

Larxene stuffed her fingers in her ears to drown the noise out, clearly annoyed and about to electrocute the crap out of both Graceful Assassin and Melodious Nocturne. Absently, Axel ate a muffin while looking out the window of _The Submarine_.

Soon Demyx's Gummi ship neared Hollow Bastion, which was already half-infected with the dread disease of Character Trait-itis, according to Demyx's computer. The girl would have to be eliminated soon…

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Meanwhile Sora, who had a meeting with the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, had left Sushineko to wander the streets alone and unsupervised.

"OH. MY. GOSH." Squealed Sushineko loudly, pointing to something in the streets. "THAT IS SUCH A CUUUTE PUPPY!" She ran over to Pluto, who had randomly turned up. Suddenly the normally friendly dog started to growl, and snap at her.

"Hey, that's not nice." She whined, pulling out the wand and shield. "You'll pay for this, you rotten little mutt!" She charged at the dog, when…

SNAP.

"Oh my gosh, noo…." Sushineko moaned in pain. "I broke a NAIL." She clutched her perfectly manicured hand, weeping tears of sapphires, eyes turning slowly into a ruby color.

"NOW I'M MAD."

"Shine Heart Superpower activate!!!!" She took her pendant and kissed the silver dragon on it.

The shield and wand vanished, and her body was covered in pink sparkles and stars and glowed a soft hue of strawberry cream as Hollow Bastion changed to a background of pink and green pastels. Sushineko started to dance, moving her feet to the beat of a drummer and guitarist playing a pop song in the background as she floated in the air.

Ribbons shot out of the pendant and wrapped around her, creating a pristine. white, lacy ninja outfit with a pink bow in the center. Her dragon pendant was the pin in the center of the bow. With the help of more pink ribbons, her skirt transformed into a schoolgirl skirt of bright pink while she made peace signs with her hands for no apparent reason. Sushineko's Keyblade flew into the air and landed into her hands, even more _embellished _with hearts and wings than ever. It had the appearance of ten pink love struck chickens in a traffic jam. Over the ninja outfit and the pink schoolgirl skirt a black coat appeared, perfectly matching the outfit and skirt. The samurai sword also flew into her hand, and grew to a length matching Sephiroth's blade, with silver sharp wings extending from the hilt.

"Shine Heart Super power, blaze within me…" Sushineko chanted, landing on the ground. Immediately, she let go of her katana, which hovered with a faint blue glow and pressed her hands to her forehead.

A purple laser-like beam shot from her forehead towards her katana. As it made contact the blue glow around the blade turned purple, and the blade flew at the dog at an impossible speed, creating a sonic boom that knocked over several passers-by. Everyone else within hearing range immediately ran for shelter; they knew the kind of destruction that could accompany a sonic boom.

Even before the blade touched Pluto, he disintegrated into thick yellow dust. Before the dust could even begin to fall to the ground, Sushineko's katana tore through it, releasing the energy it stored in the form of a massive purple explosion and another, more damaging shockwave.

Elsewhere a mouse king's hatred was added to Kairi and Riku's contempt of Sushineko.

It was then that Sora was idly strolling back, and a Gummi ship with the Nobody emblem landed in Hollow Bastion. One of its stabilizer fins had been completely shattered, and the entire ship looked like it had been battered by a Category 5 hurricane. Out strolled a very disgruntled Marluxia, glaring at Demyx and Larxene, and Axel, whistling innocently with the latter hiding a bottle of glue and an empty jar of termites behind his back.

Sushineko gasped loudly and dramatically, her voice like a frail wind chime. "It's…Organization XIII!" Her features tightened, as she gracefully took her samurai sword and Keyblade, sinking into a fighting pose from the latest martial arts movie.

"Spare the dramatics, girl." Marluxia rolled his eye, summoning his scythe. "You're in the way of the Organization's plans."

He paused, and turned around to see the others, not really doing anything. Demyx had taken out a Rubik's Cube and was playing with it.

"I SAID… the Organization's plans." Marluxia repeated loudly.

"Oh, right!" Axel, Larxene, and Demyx summoned their respective weapons, and attempted to look menacing.

"Get behind me; I'll fight all of them." Sora wore an expression of courage as he stepped in front of Sushineko, summoning his Keyblade. Within seconds he was pinned by his sleeves to a nearby tree courtesy of Larxene's kunai knives.

"Ha, A PINK SCYTHE!" Sushineko hooted with laugher, pointing at Marluxia's weapon. "Oh, that just OOZES Manliness, you fruitcake!"

Demyx twitched, remembering the LAST person to make such a comment to the Graceful Assassin. They had to deal with a particularly cocky and unintelligent man. The doctors were still puzzled on how they were to perform an autopsy of assorted body parts…

While Marluxia was fuming and yelling many obscenities, Sushineko took the time to acquaint herself with the other Nobodies, particularly numbers eight and nine, despite having been their captive just the day before.

"Hey, hawtness…es" Sushineko winked at Axel, who was holding his chakrams and pretending to listen to Marluxia's long-winded rant, and Demyx, who was idly strumming something on the sitar. "You're cute guys, unlike Sora over there. He'll trust anything.." She cackled.

"I can HEAR you over here, you know," Sora protested from the tree.

"Quiet!" Screeched Sushineko.

"Yes, dear," Sora bowed his head in shame.

"Anyways, Captain Lame-o over here was pretty cute, but he's boring. I need a boyfriend that's more…badass than goody-two shoes." She smiled innocently, waving energetically at Sora.

"Anyways, you two seem pretty cute, sinister, and evil too. Interested? I can even knock out that bimbo over there with you, and become a Nobody to replace her." Sushineko's eyes blazed with the energy of all the colors of the rainbow, and then some.

"…" Both Nobodies were speechless. Little did Sushineko know that Larxene had superb hearing. Saying nothing, Larxene turned towards the pink-clad, Keyblade-Samurai girl with a bored look. Axel and Demyx promptly ran for shelter.

Two kunai knives, cutting past the speed of sound, drove into Sushineko's skull, skewering her multicolored rainbow Technicolor eyeballs, which hissed like acid, melting down her face.

"AUGH! MY PERFECT EYES! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!"

"Shine Heart Superpower deactivate, Shadow Heart Superpower activate…" She took the dragon's pendant and kissed it again.

Yet another pop sequence started. This time, it was accompanied by a traditional string orchestra, playing a morbid, low piece that screamed of hells beyond hell.

Her entire outfit turned black as the deepest pitch of night, colored with shadows and dead dreams of poets. Her three wings also turned raven's shade, with armored silver spikes adorning them. Sushineko's Keyblade turned entirely black, with a white handle and a silver bat's wing as the blade, and a skull as the chain.

"Shadow Heart Superpower, engulf my soul…" Sushineko bared vampire's fangs, staring through empty bleeding eye sockets.

"Organization XIII, prepare to meet your end."

By this time Marluxia had cooled down enough to speak coherently, surprisingly without having dealt any permanent damage to the scenery of Hollow Bastion. "If any of you interfere in this fight, I'll kill you." His eyes narrowed. "She's mine…"

"Dude, I'm totally flattered." Sushineko said, bored, "But I really don't hang out with gay, flower-wielding, fruity, psycho, weak, wimpy people, sorry…"

Numbers Twelve, Eight, and Nine collectively sat down and took out snacks.

With speed and agility the girl flew up into the sky with her black wings, painting the noon sky dark as night, as she flew towards the Nobody, aiming the Keyblade at his non-existant heart. Marluxia stepped aside, dodging it, and took hold of the blade. He tossed it aside like the child's toy it was, and put all his strength into an attack…

The scythe seemed to cleave through the air itself, swiftly slicing through Sushineko's flesh like as easily as if it were just another volume of air."

The head fell clean onto the ground, eyeless face frozen in an expression mixed between agony, shock, and constipation. Her body started to melt like ice cream left in the sun, and soon all that remained of Sushineko was a pile of transparent rainbow goop.

"Oooooh…" The other three Nobodies held up score cards with "10" on them.

"Guys?" Sora whined in a strangely pitiful tone. "Can anyone get me off this tree, anyone?" He was still pinned by Larxene's knives

"What do you expect us to do?" Larxene rolled her eyes. "We're evil, remember?"

"Yeah," added Demyx. "We're trying to manipulate you to kill more Heartless and-"Marluxia, still very annoyed, karate-chopped Demyx. "NO GAME SPOILERS!"

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A young magpie landed nearby the bickering Nobodies, resting its wings near the pile of rainbow goop. It had flown for days, and was incredibly thirsty. Curiously it took a few sips at the goop.

The magpie's eyes widened suddenly, and then drooped. Its feathers turned a grimy shade of gray, resembling clean cement. Heavy black leather belts and collars adorned the bird, and a miniscule IPod blaring music was tucked under its wing.

The goop writhed slightly, and then compressed itself into a sphere, bright rainbow eyes appearing like a face. It rolled itself near a souvenir stand, as ominous music blared in the background…


	3. The Snowglobe

(You thought it was all over, eh? No way… cackle Sushineko's down, but not out yet…

My apologies go in advance to Kairi for any butchering of her character to occur in this chapter.)

"Ooh! Open mine next! I got it from a really cool souvenir stand!"

Delicately, the girl unwrapped the brightly colored paper covering the cardboard box.

"Wow, a snowglobe! Thanks, Sora!" Kairi smiled brightly, holding the tiny glass globe. It shone, rainbow-transparent in the afternoon's light, the brass model of Hollow Bastion gleaming. At the base was a small wind-up key. When it was wound, a small tinkling tune played as the model turned.

She placed the snowglobe on a shelf above her bed, next to the stuffed moogle that was Riku's present, before heading downstairs with her two friends to enjoy birthday cake and ice cream.

Late that night, a very tired Kairi nodded off to sleep. The moonlight shone through the open window, reflecting light in all directions off the glass surface of the snowglobe. A tiny crack appeared on the side, as the swirling rainbow liquid inside the globe leaked out, drop by drop into Kairi's ear… An orchestra perched on a tree outside her room began to play ominously.

Kairi's mother, annoyed by the ominous music, threw a shoe at the orchestra from the next room over. It smacked the percussionist, who tumbled out of the tree, dragging the strings section with him. Nearby, a cat yowled in pain as the bass drum landed on it.

Slowly the key on the snowglobe turned on its own, as the same soft, haunting melody resounded throughout the room…

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The next morning, a bird sang outside Kairi's window as the sun began to rise above the sandy coastline of Destiny Islands. Slowly she got out of bed. Slipping on her chocobo slippers, Kairi shuffled sleepily to her bathroom, looked in the mirror, and screamed loudly.

"MOM!!!! MY HAIR TURNED BLACK OVERNIGHT!"

Her normally red locks had become a shade that she could only describe as dark, black as the feathers of a raven's wing, and cut into short spikes. On the sink counter lay black eyeliner, some already pre-applied to her face. _Strange_, thought Kairi. _I never wear makeup. _

She walked to her closet to get dressed, only to find all of her school uniforms either with the sleeves ripped or painted black or with the heartless symbol painted on the front.

Not one uniform was undamaged as Kairi went through the closet, puzzled as to how all her clothes were suddenly changed without her noticing.

A cool, soft voice flowed through her head. _Well if you're wondering, Kairi, it's because your mind is mine now. Your emotions are mine to control, Princess of Heart. _It cackled, and Kairi could feel her control slipping away. The room blurred, and desperately she grabbed a pencil, scrawling something on a nearby paopu-print notebook before she lost consciousness…

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"Kairi? She's been bedridden for the whole day." Kairi's mother said to Sora and Riku, wondering why their friend hadn't shown up for school for the day. "Do you want to come in to see her?"

As they approached Kairi's room, they heard what seemed to be a mixture of heavy metal and music by Evanescence loudly playing from the room. The door had a bleeding heart carved onto it, and was painted entirely black.

"…" Confused, the two boys opened the door and walked in.

Kairi lay on the bed, face slathered with eyeliner and black lipstick. She wore a black lacy tank top, a blood-red miniskirt, and chunky black boots. Her décor had changed as well. The walls were painted red, and her furniture was painted black with skull stickers pressed on surfaces for decoration. A lamp that looked like a skull illuminated the mostly-dark room with a dusky red glow. Posters of skulls and bleeding hearts and the Smashing Paopus adorned the walls.

"Uh…Is that you, Kairi?" Sora finally spoke up while Riku was picking his jaw up from the floor.

"Yeah, it's me." Kairi hissed, her voice low and hoarse. "What's it to ya, normal people?"

"Well, your mom said you were sick, so we came to visit you."

"Oh, my 'mom,' huh?" Kairi made quotation marks with her fingers, getting up from her bed. "Psh, I bet she's telling you all sorts of crap. She'll never understand me." She stared out the window. "No one really ever understood me." It was then that Sora noticed that Kairi's arm was riddled with cuts.

"How'd your arm get hurt?"

"Oh, I did it." She replied. "It's a way to let it all out." Gravely she pointed towards a battered Butter knife.

"Let what out?" Riku asked confusedly, examining the blunt knife.

"THE UNBERABLENESS OF IT ALL!" wailed Kairi, flopping on her bed. "I… I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE." She snatched the knife from Riku and rubbed it at her wrist.

"Hey, stop that!" Sora stepped forward, and then noticed another notebook lying on the desk. Unlike the other numerous notebooks littering the room's floor, the particular notebook had a sunny yellow print. He turned the book over to see that it was decorated with small paopu fruit. On the page that it lay open to, a drawing was hastily scribbled in pen. He couldn't tell what it was at the moment. Slyly, the Keyblade master tucked the notebook into his backpack to look at later.

Meanwhile Riku was having trouble with Kairi, trying to keep the bloody butter knife just out of the frantic girl's reach.

"Give that back! I need it to get away from it all!" She screeched, snatching repeatedly at the knife.

"No." Riku reassured firmly. "We'll get you the help you need, Kairi. Pull yourself together."

Several hours of cursing, angst by Kairi, bloody noses all around, and a broken set of drawers later, Sora and Riku finally left Kairi's house, having made an appointment at the town shrink.

They had no clue about the entire situation, save for the contents of the paopu-print notebook…

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That night, Sora peered at the notebook that he had gotten from Kairi's room. He had seen it before at school, just an ordinary book. However, the page seemed strange even after he had looked over it several times. On it, in black pen, Kairi had written the word "help" hastily, with a small drawing. What was it of?

He shrugged, stowed the notebook, and turned off the lights.

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The next morning Sora got up bright and early. He hurried to Kairi's house after breakfast to check on her and make sure that she hadn't whipped out the butter knife and tried to slit her wrists overnight. He met Riku at the door, took a deep breath, and rang the doorbell.

To their surprise, Kairi answered the door, looking as normal as ever and wearing a cheerful expression. Somehow, in the space of one night, her clothes had been mended, her makeup removed, and her cuts completely healed.

"Sora! Riku! Good morning!" She grinned. "I'm ready to go now!" She grabbed her backpack from behind the door, and waved goodbye to her mother.

"Kairi, you're suddenly feeling better?" Riku asked, as the three headed towards school. "We were worried about you yesterday."

"Of course, when did I ever feel bad?" Kairi pondered, tilting her head to the side in thought. "I mean, I'm not emo or anything like that."

"Yesterday," Sora frowned with concern. "You were depressed, and trying to cut yourself. We were going to take you to talk to someone today."

"That's funny." Kairi laughed. "Great joke, guys. But I don't remember that at all! We all sat together and talked for a while, and then you went home."

"We're definitely taking you to the psychiatrist today, Kairi." Sora insisted. "It's because we care about you."

"I'm fine." Kairi briefly assumed an uncomfortable expression before quickly brightening up again. "There's no need to take me anywhere, guys. I'm A-okay!"

The school's bell rang loudly, signaling students to head to class soon. Kairi quickly reminded her friends. "We're going to be late. Let's get going!"

With slight unease, the two boys looked at each other, shrugged, and entered the school building. It wasn't until both had entered that Kairi slipped a tape player out of her backpack. She clicked the "record" button and spoke into it.

"Operation Yaoi, day one. At time of message, targets appear to be involved in purely platonic friendship. Will proceed to devise and plan to get them together in a less innocent way, because they belong together and don't realize it, and cause' they look really hot together…" She clicked the "Record" button off, and stood there, lost in her pleasant thoughts, beginning to drool.

Sora looked back and noticed that Kairi hadn't come with them. He shouted back at her, "Hey, Kairi! Weren't you the one who said we were going to be late? C'mon!" Kairi quickly caught up with the two boys, a dreamy look in her eyes as she contemplated her plans for them. Neither of the boys noticed.


	4. Atypical Day

**((Sorry it took a while for an update. But this one is longer than usual updates, huh?  ))**

The clock seemed to tick more slowly than usual

The teacher was drawing confusing chemical symbols on the board while droning on. "...as opposed to an ionic bond, where electrons are transferred, in a covalent bond atoms share electrons. There are two main types of covalent bonds, polar and nonpolar..."

Not many were paying attention. Sora had begun to fold paper airplanes and throw them at various people in the classroom, several getting stuck in Selphie's hair. Riku had fallen asleep, slumped on the desk and using his textbook as a pillow.

Unlike her classmates, Kairi was intently listening to the lecture, scribbling on what seemed to be blueprint paper. Soon the bell rang, signaling a lunch break for students.

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"I think there's something…else wrong with Kairi today," Sora remarked uncertainly, peering at their friend, who sat alone.

"No, really?" Riku quipped sarcastically. "I didn't notice at all."

Kairi looked affectionately at small plushies made intricately to look like Sora and Riku. Strangely, the Sora plushie was wearing a bride's outfit complete with veil, and the Riku plushie clad in a tuxedo. She had constructed in altar out of her lunch box and some bread for the happy plush couple.

"I…feel uncomfortable now," was all the Keyblade master could say, as dozens of fan girls approached Kairi, squealing at the kawaiiness of the plushies.

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"Hmm, it looks like someone glued your backpack to the ceiling." Tidus commented, looking towards the bag.

"Aw, and all my stuff's gonna fall out!" Sora stepped onto a desk and attempted to pry the backpack free while standing on his toes.

"Hey, what's going on?" Riku walked into the classroom and asked, "What's Sora doing on that desk?"

Behind a closet door, Kairi peered out, and then released the remote control. Sora had attempted to pull at the backpack to free it and at that moment the device holding the backpack in place snapped, sending Sora to the location Kairi had approximated and somehow pinning Riku to the ground.

Success! Kairi punched the air, accidentally knocking the closet door open.

"Kairi, what's that you have in your hand?" Sora demanded, getting off the ground. "Is…that a remote control?"

"Of…course not!" She smiled innocently, quickly slipping the device back into her bag. "I'd never have anything like that at school!"

Riku was in an annoyed mood for the rest of the day. What perplexed him was Kairi's current…condition. First she was suicidal, now downright fanatic. Something was fishy, and he was going to figure out what was wrong.

------------------------0-------------------

"See you guys tomorrow!" Kairi shut the door to her house, waving goodbye to her friends. Immediately running upstairs, she dug out her blueprints. She had barely gotten out of going to see a psychiatrist in the afternoon, and Sora and Riku were catching on fast that she wasn't fine.

"I have no choice now," cackled Kairi, under Sushineko's control. "It's time to implement the secret plan…" She drew a small, slender key out of her backpack, inspecting a map of the school's storage facilities.

------------------------0----------------------

It was around eleven at night, when Sora heard a tap at his window. A small pebble bounced off the glass. Riku, living next door, also woke and checked outside. Standing near the balcony was an unexpected guest…

"There's something wrong with Kairi, if you haven't noticed already." Naminé glanced uneasily towards the darkened shoreline. Both boys stood on the balcony that the two neighbors shared, listening intently to the Nobody.

"There's something else in her mind… I've been cast away from my Other since that…thing took over. It's been around for about two days now, and seems to be developing at an extraordinary speed. Kairi's slowly losing control of herself. I can tell that much. If we don't hurry, the effects will be permanent."

"Well, I did find one thing yesterday." Sora ran to his room, and fished the notebook from his backpack. "There were a few scribbles on it, and the word 'Help.' It just seemed suspicious, with this and Kairi's behavior for the past few days."

"Hmm, that's about the last thing that I remember Kairi doing. Then I'm suddenly on the Islands… And I can't speak to Kairi at all now." Naminé frowned

"Something fishy's going on here." Sora concluded.

"We've got to be careful," Naminé replied. "We'll need to plan against whatever's at work. I have a feeling that it's not going to be a walk in the park."

--------------------0---------------

Kairi feverishly stuffed the finished plan into her backpack, walking out the door with hair unkempt and school uniform wrinkled.

"Geez, Kairi. You don't look so good today," commented Riku.

"No, no, I'm perfectly fine!" Kairi nodded frantically. Riku looked at Sora and shrugged, and the three students walked the rest of the way to school in uneasy silence.

"Uh, wait guys!" Kairi changed the subject briefly as they arrived at school. "I think I left something in chemistry yesterday. You guys go ahead, I'll go get it."

Furtively she snuck into the back room of the chemistry lab, taking something in a small bottle labeled 'Desflurane' and a cold cloth out of a refrigerator.

"Perfect…"Kairi smiled to herself. "Now for the next phase…"

---------------------------0-------------------------

"I need two people to get our textbooks from the supply closet. We'll need them for discussion today." Their English teacher wrote the agenda on the board as she spoke. Sora immediately raised his hand to volunteer, and, seeing an unexpected opportunity, Kairi raised her hand as well.

"Okay, Sora and Kairi, please get us some books. You two know where the textbooks are stored, right?" Sora nodded and left the room, with Kairi following closely. They walked over to and opened the ordinary-looking closet to retrieve the books that the teacher had requested.

"Sora…" Kairi's voice was laced with pain as she turned to face him in the closet. "I'm sorry…"

"What are you talking about, Kairi?" Sora's back was turned as he picked out some textbooks from a higher shelf. Kairi suddenly dropped the books she was carrying, and swiftly pressed the cloth to his face. The chemical knocked Sora unconscious instantly.

"…But you're going to have to take a quick nap. Okay, hon?" Sushineko's control turned Kairi's eyes a golden color. She set to work quickly, eyes shifting back to blue as she piled a few books on top of Sora, before taking her textbooks and running out of the closet, bursting into the classroom a few moments later in apparent panic.

"Riku, you've got to help!" Kairi set the books down in front of the teacher. "Sora's stuck in there, and he's knocked out. All these textbooks suddenly fell on him!"

Confused, Riku set his pencil and notebook down, following Kairi to the closet.

"Hmm, it looks like he's out cold. I'll carry him to the nurse." As he knelt down, Riku saw a brief giggle from Kairi before she shut the closet door. He got up and turned the knob. It didn't budge.

_Hmm, I can probably just blow this up, but …_ Riku's thoughts stopped. Blowing up a textbook storage facility in public wasn't going to earn him any brownie points.

A few minutes later, Sora was starting to regain his consciousness. He sat up, shoving a few textbooks aside.

"Hey, where'd Kairi go? And why are you in here?" He sat up, checking their cramped surroundings.

"…" Riku motioned to the locked door. "She locked us in here."

"That's totally unlike her! Maybe Naminé was right. Something must be possessing her! But we've got to get out of here and fast!"

In a flash of light, a Keyblade appeared in Sora's hands. "Let's try to get out of here. But this could take a few minutes, what with the long sequence that this thing takes to unlock things."

The floor glowed as Sora pointed the Kingdom Key at the door, but instead of the crown insignia it usually bore, the floor glowed with a familiar square blue pattern, and white lettering read:

"A fatal exception 3A has occurred at 1014:8AC1550A in KBD ULS(04) + 074F1066. The current application will be terminated..."

"Aw, crap." Riku looked up from the random textbook he was reading. "You got the blue screen of death."

"Yeah, I've got to reboot this thing now." Sora sighed. It was going to take them a while to get out of the closet.

-------------------0------------------

"So you're a Nobody? I remember seeing some the other day." Kairi's voice sounded different, more melodious yet deadly.

"You see," Naminé explained calmly outside the closet, "I'm Kairi's Nobody, and I can't have you using my Other's body like a cheap toy."

"Well, aren't you some kind of little goody-goody," sneered Sushineko, appearing translucent outside. "But you're not getting Kairi or my boys from my control this easily. Let's see how you can do in combat, ne?"

With that the manifestation of Sushineko and Naminé both disappeared, reappearing in a hazy purple realm that was Kairi's mind.

"Let's see you stand against me," Sushineko boasted, twirling both Keyblade and Samurai sword with two fingers. "You don't even have a weapon, and your Other's mind reflects your own pathetic weakness." The sweetness dripped from her voice like poisoned honey.

"I don't need a weapon." Naminé stood her ground. "If my Other can find the will to fight and protect her friends, then I can too."

The hazy ground where two stood glowed a deep purple.

"Of course," the red-eyed temptress smirked. "Speeches set aside, let us begin." Her Samurai sword flew to her right hand and, clutching her pink Keyblade in her left, she charged.

--------------------------------------0-------------------------------

"You've got to be kidding me." Sora groaned. "This thing didn't glitch out when I'm trying to save the world, but when I need to get out of a closet… it kinks out."

"Hmm, I wonder how Kairi is doing," Riku looked up from Jane Eyre. "I hear something outside."

"I'm really tempted to just burn the wall down right now," Sora glared at the Keyblade. "Some ultimate weapon this thing is…"

--------------------------------0------------------------------

"Well, aren't you going to draw your weapon?" Sushineko taunted, striking repeatedly at Naminé, with strikes of magic of every element known to man, and several undiscovered elements that sent chemists everywhere scurrying outside an unconscious Kairi, listening for the attacks.

Uncertainty built up in the Nobody's mind as she dodged the blasts. _I need a weapon. _Naminé thought desperately.

"Storm Heart Superpower," Sushineko chanted absently, kissing the pendant she always wore. The fast beat of a techno song played. Tornados spun around her as her clothes turned a periwinkle color. Her Keyblade and sword turned pale blue, and miniature whirlwinds spun around Sushineko's feet. Many strange things blew by on the wind, including a bicycle, and a girl wearing a blue plaid dress frantically trying to rescue a Scottish terrier.

"Storm Heart Superpower, unleash my rage." Sushineko flung her arms out in front of her, releasing twin tornadoes.

The winds whipped across Kairi's mind. Outside the Princess of Heart absently clutched at her forehead. Naminé was blown into the air by Sushineko's continued blasts of wind from her Keyblade.

"See? You just can't beat me!" The blasts continued as Sushineko slammed the hilt of the samurai sword at Naminé's spine. "1000 damage, critical hit!" appeared above the Nobody's head in red letters. She fell to the ground, wincing.

Naminé flinched, the pain echoing through her body, sensed by Kairi. Groggily she stood from the floor, regaining her consciousness. Immediately Kairi realized something wasn't right. Naminé was in trouble. She had to help, but how?

Heart.

Her heart's strength would surely work. Kairi closed her eyes, drawing on the power of her heart. The purple battleground of her mind shone brightly.


	5. Battle of Minds

------------------------0------------------------

A leather-bound book rose from the depths of the ground, opening at Naminé's feet. It opened, revealing glowing pages of text. From the tome's heart, a Keyblade emerged. Its initial shape was that of a rod, slender and in the form of a fountain pen. From the ornate wood's handle dangled a bottle of ink. The points of the Keyblade were unusually sharp, and crafted of steel. On the opposite ends spiked colored pencils served as an equally deadly method of attack.

The new and strange weapon floated to Naminé, landing lightly in her palm. On the ink bottle small letters spelled out "Creative Spark."

"You can't have a Keyblade!" snarled Sushineko, her red eyes narrowing in rage. "You'll never be as special as me, I won't have it!"

Nobody and angel-fairy-alchemist-ninja-samurai clashed. Naminé's Keyblade was extremely agile and sharp, easy to use for both defense and offense.

Naminé pointed Creative Spark at the floor as a giant pad of paper appeared. With lightning speed she sketched a perfect likeness of the first Organization members that came to mind. Taking a deep breath, she pressed the blade to the floor, unlocking its magic. The ink sprang up, bringing the picture to life. A two-dimensional Marluxia grinned evilly at Sushineko as he appeared in a storm of flower petals. A paper Axel appeared in a burst of flames, and then made a frantic face, realizing that he had set himself on fire. Finally the crackling sounds of thunder summoned a sketched Larxene, armed with her kunai.

Sushineko blanched at the sight of the Organization, approaching and looking menacing even in paper form. Then she stopped.

"Wait a minute, you're all paper!" She laughed loudly, pointing. "It's like…those dolls that you can cut out!"

Impatiently the paper Marluxia twirled his scythe, pointing repeatedly at Sushineko. He couldn't speak, but it was obvious that he was demanding that blood be spilt.

Naminé nodded to the paper Nobodies, and all three attacked. Despite having pillars of flames approaching her, lightning shot at her, and hundreds of razor-sharp petals flying her way, Sushineko kept a calm and valiant expression.

"I know what to do!" She summoned both wand and shield for no reason in particular, and then bit the paopu fruit off her Keyblade's chain. The bitten fruit grew to a size that was biologically impossible, and then rushed towards Naminé, attempting to slam her into the ground.

Paper Axel set the fruit ablaze, and it turned to ashes crumbling to the floor mere seconds later. Naminé tapped her Keyblade to the floor again, as a white wooden disc rose out. Dots of different colored paint swelled from the wood, expanding until Naminé held a palette in her free hand. She flung it at the direction of the other girl.

The palette seemed to have a will of its own as it spun faster towards Sushineko, hurling blobs of bright paint at her clothes. They stained her silk skirt and shirt, and had the impact velocity of ammo fired by a paintball gun. Pain shot through her legs and arms, as the paint was lead-based. The continuous impacts knocked her aside like a useless rag doll.

"I…can't move," she growled, struggling to get up. Tears began to flow from bluest-of-blue eyes. "You're…so mean!"

Her image faded and flickered briefly, as her hold on Kairi's mind weakened. A blurred image of Kairi appeared on the battlefield. However, her eyes looked blank and distant, as if in a trance.

"This must be working," Naminé turned to her paper associates. "Keep distracting her, I'll try to regain Kairi's control."

As the Nobodies closed in on her, Sushineko's eyes grew bright purple. Swirling blades of wind whipped around her again. They ripped the paper Nobodies to shreds. Once again the battlefield was empty save for her and Naminé. However, she froze suddenly. Her grip weakened slowly as her attention turned to casting the attack spell.

Naminé had to work quickly. However, the chains of Kairi's memories were easy to locate, as they were fighting inside her mind. Picking the most durable and old chains apart from the mass that was Kairi's thoughts, Naminé pointed Creative Spark at the chains in her hand.

Kairi felt something ring, clear and definite in her mind. Her memories and her strength started to return little by little. The memories came back: falling from the skies onto Destiny Islands as a little girl, finding her friends, and then the unforgettable journey that all three were caught up in and finished. The bonds that she held with them were still there, and strong.

On the purple field, Kairi's image finally solidified. Still groggy, she shook her head and looked around her. "Naminé? Is that you?"

"No time to explain," her Nobody pulled her to her feet. "All we need to do is get her out of your mind. She's got you possessed." Naminé pointed to Sushineko.

"This won't do at all," Sushineko muttered. "I'll have to stop you evildoers…with my own hands… I'll save them and they'll love me, adore me…"

All of Sushineko's weapons suddenly materialized in her right hand. She fanned them out and passed them in front of her face, while gently blowing over her right hand onto the weapons. As she blew, flower petals of all imaginable colors appeared over her right hand, and were blown into contact with the weapons, which absorbed them and began to glow themselves.

Her melodious voice began to sing out: "Spectrum Heart Superpower…" A hyper Europop beat began in the background as the space around Sushineko suddenly began to flash in various blindingly bright colors.

Sushineko's dragon pendant released 2 diamonds, which flew to either side of her. Meanwhile, she folded all the glowing weapons in her right hand into one glowing silhouette, which released a bright burst of light, revealing a multi-colored, dual-bladed glaive. Sushineko held the glaive at arm's length in front of her, and two beams of pure white light shot out of it. Each beam hit a diamond and split into a rainbow of colored light beams. The two rainbows arched around Sushineko multiple times, splitting up again and again until she was surrounded by a cocoon of colored light. As the cocoon unfolded slowly, they revealed that Sushineko was now wearing a robe spun of bright silver cloth, with rainbows sewn at the cuffs and collar. A shining headdress of every precious metal and stone adorned her head. The glaive sat in her hands, gloved in mythril and sapphires. The robe trailed to her feet, sashes of rainbow unfurling at ends clasped together by gold.

"Spectrum Heart Superpower, call forth limitless energy." Sushineko spun her glaive in front of her once, then assumed a battle stance.

"Prepare yourselves!" sang Sushineko, cheerily pointing her glaive threateningly at her two foes. "I'll never lose in my final-form-limit-break-transformation mode!"

"We need a plan against her, don't we?" Kairi mused calmly. Naminé glanced at the glaive.

"I've got an idea now. We'll need to distract her somehow."

"Planning to take my boys from me?" hissed Sushineko. "You vile shrews, I'll never let them fall for you!"

"Yours? What-"

"Don't interrupt me!" Sushineko waved the glaive, eyes shining with potential glory. "I'll have all the bishies, and we'll all be happy together! Like a family!" Truly ranting with lunacy, her eyes glowed all the colors of the rainbow as she hurled the glaive at Kairi.

A _shing! _of metal was audible as the severe blow was blocked. Kairi stood triumphantly, parrying the attack with her own Keyblade.

A second Kairi appeared behind Sushineko, pointing a Keyblade at the temptress' back.

"Two?!" Sushineko sputtered. The attacking Kairi's features changed with a blur of colors, as Naminé stood in the Princess' place.

"Of course," the Nobody replied. "Not all of us show off our tricks all at once."

"Get out of my way," Sushineko shoved her aside.

During the brief distraction, Kairi had set to work, raising her Keyblade as the flowers decorating the blade glowed. A large blue cone-shaped hat decorated with silver moons and stars appeared in the air. Out of the hat a wooden staff-like creature poked its head out. Knobby arms of twigs hoisted a small broom out of the hat, landing on the floor with a soft _thump_.

Slowly, with a rhythm in its step, the broom advanced towards Sushineko.

"You're kidding me, sending cleaning appliances now?" She haughtily laughed with an air of disdain. The broom brandished a bucket of water, and dumped it over Sushineko's perfectly-coiffed hairstyle.

Growling, Sushineko sliced the broom into two with the glaive. It fell to the floor with a wooden _clack! _The pieces wriggled slightly, as a handle grew out of one half and a bristled end the other. Two brooms advanced towards her.

"You…have angered the incorrect person…" Rainbow-colored magic flared around Sushineko as a strange mark shaped like a cross between a mathematic equation and a baseball team logo glowed on her forehead.

Sparks flared around the brooms as whips of flame spun around them like a cage, and like a thousand knives, chopped them to bits. All that remained was a pile of fine sawdust.

"It's over now." Sushineko grinned triumphantly.

"Yes." Kairi said, tiredly sitting aside. "Yes it is." Naminé repeated.

Thousands of popping noises began to go off, and colored lights filled the field. Kairi and Naminé felt a little bit dizzy, as they were blinded by the glow emerging from the hat.

Sushineko felt her legs lock her to the floor. "What the hell?" She spat, uncharacteristically.

The room's colors seemed to be sapped into the hat, as the girls' energies were absorbed into what seemed to be the large pile of sawdust Sushineko had created. Naminé and Kairi's appearances also changed, and both had the images of old cartoons, with stretchy-looking limbs and larger-than-normal eyes.

After a brief period the colors of the vast surroundings were restored to their hazy purple shade. The sawdust on the floor wriggled briefly, then in the pile of rubble's place stood a vast countless army of brooms. They stood around Sushineko, completely surrounding the rainbow-robed girl.

"Oh…" Her voice lowered as the brooms steadily marched to close in on her, buckets of ice-cold water raised.

"Crap…"

The torrent of water came rushing at her as she spoke her last words, as the brooms poured bucket after bucket at the sorceress. Each broom, after emptying out its bucket, gave a little wave and disappeared in a poof of black-and-white confetti.

"I guess your mind's finally at peace now." Naminé smiled, waving goodbye to her Other as Kairi vanished from her own mind, regaining control of her body.

---------------0-----------------

Crickets chirped outside in the cool island. Night had already fallen, and Kairi stood alone in the empty and cold classroom. She heard a knob turn, and the locked closet finally creaked open.

"Augh, I HATE this thing!" bellowed Sora, chucking the Keyblade to the ground. "I'm never leaving my house keys at home again if THESE are the results I'm going to get!"

"Ah, Kairi," Riku looked up from War and Peace. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, a little water in my ears." Kairi shook her head, getting the remaining water out. "But I'm okay now." She smiled.

"That's great, now let's go home." Riku started towards the door, to find that it was locked. They both turned to Sora, who groaned.

"Here we go again."


	6. Malfunctioning Plans

((Here it is, folks. The next chapter…))

"It's not fair…" sobbed a soft melodramatic voice in the ocean. "Why… why isn't my destiny…fulfilling itself?"

"Why do my sorrows unceasingly torment my daytimes and nights, and my thoughtful planning and toils…in the end…" Hands clothed in soaked-to-the-bone rainbow robes lifted.

"I start anew." A far more sinister voice hissed.

In the nighttime ocean, amber-red eyes gleamed like an eerie beacon.

--------------------------------0-----------------------------

It began on a sunny Friday afternoon, as relaxed and eased students ambled out of the Destiny Islands' lone public school. Chatter and gossip were exchanged in the bustle of the crowd of students.

Three in particular were casually planning a weekend on one of the islands.

"A little rest really wouldn't hurt," Kairi cast a look on 'their' island. "With what's been going on currently, it'd be nice to take some time off…"

After the small 'incident,' Sora and Riku had explained the behavior of the virus to her. Deeply guilty and sympathetic, she wanted to make it up to them.

"Cool, let's meet here tomorrow at eight." They had arrived at Kairi's house.

"I'll see you two tomorrow, then!" With a click, she closed the door.

-------------------------------0-------------------------

"Planning, planning," Sushineko muttered to herself, squatting on the shoreline and drawing crude blueprints in the sand with a stick. She had spent a good hour wringing the saltwater out of her rainbow robes. That witch would pay for doing this to her outfit!

"So Sora and Kairi have caught on to this…" She X'd out their names from a list of potential…recruits, to say.

"Riku, on the other hand…" She paused, going over his traits. Definitely fitting bishonen criteria: complete with silky lovely silver hair, a history of turning to the darkness and therefore angst-potential… "

"He's perfect! I'll definitely use him to save Sora from those…harpies!" Sushineko stood triumphantly.

"But…how?" She paused. A small desk lamp appeared over her head, the bulb going on.

"I've got it!" The lamp bounced on her head vigorously before hopping away.

"My plans will be complete…" She cackled, and then randomly slumped over, lightly snoring.

------------------------0----------------------------

"Wow, I can't believe this thing is still here!" Sora ran over to a worn wooden platform on the islet, picking up a battered wooden sword. He swung at an imaginary Heartless with the light, durable blade.

"Weird, huh?" Riku set his lunch on a nearby platform. "We haven't gotten a chance to come back here ever since we got back…" Something glinted from a few bushes in the distance, and only he seemed to notice.

"Weird…" Briefly casting a glance at his friends, he cautiously approached the vegetation.

"KUPO!!!" A bright pink chibi moogle burst out of the bushes. Bright blue..er...pupils shone from its eyes, and five red pompoms jiggled from its head. It wore a diadem with a bright clear jewel in the center, the source of the glint.

"…" Riku briefly stared at it, but his shock was overcome by indifference. It wasn't as if his life was normal, of all things.

He started to walk off when he felt the moogle tug at his sleeve. He brushed it off with considerable force, causing it to fly into the lower branches of a nearby tree. With a _thunk_,a wasp's nest landed on the moogle's head, the wax cracking in half. Like agitated playing darts, angry buzzing bees emerged from the broken hive.

_Crap… _The moogle, or Sushineko thought. She quickly jumped into a pool of water, hoping to shake the bees off. Unfortunately for her, she had agitated a nest of_ Osirinus amphibiosa, _the Destiny Island Diving Bees…

Minutes of agonizing needles of pain later, Sushineko again squatted at the beach, a short distance away from Sora, Kairi, and Riku. She plastered a great deal of band-aids on her sore arms, muttering curses unfit for a Sue.

"That's alright," Sushineko cheerily chirped to no one in particular, "I've got a whole stack of plans that I can use." Out of hammer-space she pulled out a file folder stuffed full of papers and tuna salad.

"Onto plan B!"

---------------------------------------0---------------------------------

The sun hung in the midday island sky, as the friends unpacked a light lunch to eat at the shore.

As Sora and Kairi were conversing on their classes, Riku excused himself to fetch more water from the spring, taking their canteens.

As he bent down near a spring to refill the canteens, something rustled in the bushes, but was ignored. "Alright…" Sushineko kissed the ever-present dragon pendant, the clasp on it getting rusty.

"Sycamore Heart Superpower!" While this transformation was nothing as pretty or complex as the ones she had used before, Sushineko knew that, at least for this situation, it was completely appropriate. With a short flash of green light and a swirl of leaves, a motile tree stood in Sushineko's place, its olive-brown-mauve tendrils stretching to grab Riku. Instinctively the boy drew Way to the Dawn, slicing off the tree's advancing branches.

"Geez, this is like those old horror movies." Riku stepped back, watching the severed branches fall harmlessly to the ground.

The tree shrank back with a hiss, leaving Riku alone. The places where its branches were formerly located sizzled as if burned by fire. Riku looked at the tree for a few seconds, pausing to think of the…odd flora and fauna of Destiny Islands that he seemed to constantly be encountering on that particular day. However, he quickly shrugged his thoughts off, and ran back to join his friends, with their canteens filled.

-----------------------------0-----------------------

"Now let's appeal to his material instincts," a slightly disheveled Sushineko stood over a 5-meter-deep pit, leaning on a shovel. She had spent the last few hours digging it, after regenerating her lost limbs. Quickly she covered the pit with grasses and a few branches, leaving 200 munny atop the trap.

Riku approached the pit, cheerily whistling the Mickey Mouse Club theme.

"…" Sushineko's anticipation built, as she watched Riku spot the munny…

"Hey, Riku!" Kairi called "Come over here for a second! Sora just fished up this HUGE fish!" The youth promptly left the munny, and ran off towards the docks.

"What? But… he…I spent hours..." Sushineko was speechless as she walked over to inspect a trap. She heard a rustling of leaves and a _THUMP! _As she landed in the bottom of the deep pit, Sushineko emotionlessly took out a list and crossed out the blueprints of the plan.

--------------------------------0-----------------------

"These plans are starting to cost me a lot," Sushineko muttered as she set up what looked like a stereo system, connected to a large rock planted in the shallows. "But at least they're good plans!"

It was late in the afternoon already, the sun was about to set, and the friends had pitched up their tents to spend the night on the island. Sushineko had tried various plans to isolate and capture Riku, including plans that involved an elephant, large mocha lattes, and a vacation brochure to spend six weeks in the desert.

"Plan Q will surely work…fufufufufu..." She laughed evilly, and opened a book titled Greek Mythology for Complete Idiots.

----------------------------0-----------------------------

"Riku, I have to get everything unpacked. Can you and Sora go get firewood?" Kairi asked.

"Sure thing," Riku promptly got up from where he sat, and retrieving a flashlight, he and Sora started to venture into the darkened forest.

It was a while before they decided to split up, and get wood within a larger surface area. Finding enough wood, Riku started to head back to their small camp. Walking past the beach, he stopped again. Something shined in the distance. Again. Riku briefly considered getting contact lenses.

Sitting on a rock with the waves lapping at her fins was a siren. She wore a shimmering blue dress that swayed to and fro with the waves of the ocean. Navy-blue-sapphire-cobalt-azure-cerulean-eyes seemed to probe the inner reaches of his mind. In her hand she clutched a microphone, and if her appearance said anything, it was that her voice would be as melodic as the gently-rushing ocean. She seemed to be part-mermaid also, a smooth blue tail gently splashing water onto the sand.

"_Up where they walk, up where they run…"_ She sang loudly into a microphone, her voice like the softest feeling of sandpaper soaked in vinegar.

"Up where they stay all day in the sun…Wandering free - wish I could be…Part of that world… "She stopped abruptly, and screeched very ungracefully, "HEY! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?" Large lumps swelled on her head, from the rocks and rotten vegetables that Riku had pelted her with. He sat nonchalantly to the side, wondering if he had left the stove on at home.

"You're so…difficult…" sobbed Sushineko as she jumped off her rock, unplugged the stereo system, and swam off.

"Oh, yeah! Now I remember! I forgot to get the firewood!" Riku suddenly stood and ran off.

---------------------------------0---------------------------

Sitting sadly while invisible near a platform, Sushineko watched Sora, Kairi, and Riku happily drink soup and eat paopu-shaped crackers.

"Tomorrow's another day…" She nibbled at her rainbow chocolate chip mashed potato sandwich. "The day of my triumph…"

"So we're going home tomorrow afternoon?" Kairi offered a paopu cracker to Riku.

"Yeah, school's on Monday," Riku spoke with his mouth full.

"Ahh…so I must…strike now before it's too late!" Sushineko thought hurriedly.

Several hours later, as the protagonists drifted off to slumber, Sushineko remained awake, once again feverishly scratching blueprints in the sand.

"I have done it!" She exclaimed triumphantly. At the same time, the small desk lamp that had again appeared over her head, having gained tremendous jumping abilities, hopped to the top of a nearby coconut tree. It knocked a coconut off the tree, which conked Sushineko on the head, and knocked her out cold.

------------------------------------


End file.
